Battle-of-the-sexes romantic comedy accurately hits numerous notes of stridency, nastiness, pain, and so on, and next to none of laughter. More of an unromantic uncomedy. (The screenwriters, Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender, and the director, Peyton Reed, are all male, so no equal representation.) Vince Vaughn, Mr. Glib, comes across as too insouciant to be truly involved, and in order to convey a scintilla of commitment he must resort to the devices of Burt Lancaster as pointed out by Vincent Canby: he "acts with his hair." Or in Vaughn's case, his hairpieces, sporting a mild approximation of a 1950s rock-and-roller's pompadour for special occasions but favoring otherwise something resembling a scoop of hot fudge, creating continuity problems when he huffs out of dinner parties looking like Fabian but, a bit later at his favorite watering hole, looking more like Tony Bennett. Jennifer Aniston, Miss Coppertone 2002-06, does better at acting engaged, but the chemistry of the couple, the basis for their relationship, is never established beyond a pre-credits meet-cute at Wrigley Field and a behind-the-credits photo montage in which they look as well matched as Scott and Laci Peterson. The least you can say about the resolution is that it does not totally betray what precedes it. With Joey Lauren Adams, Jon Favreau, Judy Davis. (2006) — Duncan Shepherd
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